CHAPTER ONE
1.0   INTRODUCTION
Productivity refers to the measure of efficiency of a given input in producing a given output. Productivity improvement in the large society or organization has of recent generated much attention and concern. The success of failure of failure of an organization largely depend on its level of productivity which may be high or low depending on several factor (Irukwu, 2001).
Schular (1981), defined stress as  “ dynamic condition in which an individual is confronted with an opportunity, constraint or  demand related to what he or she desires and for which the outcome is perceived to be both certain and important.
The inter-relationship between the mind and the body is well known as well as the link between stress and the human health. It is pertinent to know that not all stress can be both negative and positive and have both effects is bad. Stress can be both negative and positive and have both effects respectively. Infact stress is essential for human survival. A minimum amount of stress does not discriminate by sex, age or class. It affects everyone in all classes of the society.
People in organizations experience a lot of demand and pressure. These demand and pressure are often conflicting. Pressure emerges everyday in the course of work which causes a lot of stress on people. It is therefore necessary to understand the nature of stress, how people respond to it, its consequences and how control or manage it.
According to Oharei and Odejide, 1991 Stress can be seen as “the biological response to events that threatens to overwhelm the individual capacity to cope satisfactorily in the environment.  It can also be seen that there is a potential for stress when an environment is perceived as presenting a demand that threatens to exceed the person’s capabilities and resources for meeting it under conditions here he expected a substantial differential in the regards and cost from meeting the demand versus not meeting it.  This is to say that the causes of stress can be found not only within the environment but also within the individual.  In the addition, the interaction of both can cause stress.
Green etal, (1990), defined psychological stress as a “particular relationship between a person and the environment that is appraised or perceived by the person as taking exceeding his or her resources and endangering his or her well-being.  The perception of stress is the part to whether the person or individual experiences stress or not.  This is the treason why what an individual considers as stress may not be stress to the other person.
Cooper and Marshal (1976), defined occupational stress as negative environmental factors or stress associated with a particular job.  Stress is very common in the workplace than in other aspect of life.  However, it is pertinent to know that the work environment can pose as a danger to the health and well being or workers.  Satter et al, 1990 stated that “the work environment is a threat or risk factor with regards to the physical health and safety of workers.   Occupational stress may result due to lack of co-operation or harmony between a worker and his work environment.  The work environment an individual is exposed to have a relative effect on his health, social and psychological needs and also to enhance the quality of life of such a person.
The adverse effects of occupational stress can lead to either Behavioural, Psychological or even semantic problems.  Responses to such behaviour could be insomnia, dizziness, fatigue, headache, frustration, anger, fear, aggression, hyperactivity etc.  Other possible response of long term stress could be arthritis, ulcer, and constipation, susceptibility to disease or infection, backaches, heart problems, appetite loss, indigestion, increased blood pressure.  These physical disorders would culminate in some familiar emotional problems such as marital strife, sexual problems, excessive drinking, and eating junk food instead of meals.
As mentioned earlier the anxiety on the part of workers to meet up with expectations or target put them under so much pressure which will eventually lead to stress and consequently inadequate performance.  Several other factors causes occupational stress such as work overload, Role conflict Deadlines, Poor working conditions, it is however important for individuals to know about personal stress control or management and also 5the organization to put in place mechanism for organizational stress management.